Portsmouth artist Tim Gaudreau became an eco-artist and activist when he learned that the picturesque fog he was taking a picture of in a California valley was really smog drifting in from L.A. “I had been hoping that people would be moved by my images to enjoy, respect and even protect the landscape that was easy to see as so beautiful,” the award-winning photographer said. “The time for subtly had passed. I then decided that I had to change my work from passive action to direct activism.”

Now, Gaudreau says, “I strive to use my work as a tool for generating discussion about environmental issues.”

With the green, sustainable Tim Gaudreau Studios,  run out of a barn next to his house in Portsmouth (“to reduce my daily commute to zero”), he produces art and installations to more directly bring attention to our impact on the environment.  His best-known piece – in several variations, as installed as a collage in several galleries – is the self-explanatory Self Portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 days of photographing everything I threw out (2004).

He was commissioned by the Timberland Company to create a series of interactive installations, and the sculpture Give Plastic the Boot (2008), a giant boot made out of plastic bottles. He built Sprawl Viewers (2002), empty frames at eye-level through which passers-by could look at fields and forests outside of Portsmouth; some frames had transparent screens in them with images of houses and businesses, showing how quickly a beautiful place can be developed. For Found Posters (2001), Gaudreau put up posters with pictures of pieces of litter, offering to return them to their owners.

Gaudreau is currently working with local students to artistically design public recycling bins in Portsmouth. The bins are being built and installed throughout the city as part of the Downtown Portsmouth Zero Waste Project. The project, begun by the Islington Creek Neighborhood Association in 2009, and aided by EcoMovement Consulting & Hauling and Middleton Building Supply, is an effort to reduce the city’s overall waste by making it as easy to find a place to recycle as it is to find a trashcan. “For me, this project is about translating conversation into real action,” Gaudreau says. At the same time, it produces more conversation, as the local students, by taking part, are made more aware of recycling, pollution, and other environmental issues. And instead of having ugly, mass-produced recycling bins, Portsmouth will become a more attractive city, with unique bins created by members of the community.

Gaudreau, who holds a B.F.A. in Photography from the University of New Hampshire, and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Art & Critical Theory from the Maine College of Art, says that he is better able to appreciate New England (and New Hampshire in particular) after traveling abroad for his work over the years.

While in Brazil in 1998, he showed a photo exhibition, People and Places of New Hampshire, at the Museu do Imagem e Som, a museum in Ceara, New Hampshire’s sister-state; the next year, he had an exhibition at the State House in Concord: Images of Our Sister State: Ceara, Brazil. “ I feel that I see and understand where I am from much more clearly as a result of these experiences,” he says.

“ I think the [New Hampshire] landscape is so important to me, with its variation in terrain from coast and hills to mountains and cliffs. I love the trees and thick foliage, the crunch of snow beneath my feet, the breath-taking views from so many of the White Mountains, the smell of salt wafting from the ocean.”

As a New Hampshire eco-artist, Gaudreau demonstrates a give-and-take with the state’s natural beauty. His work is both inspired by, and meant to protect, the Granite State’s environment.

“I once stood in a wide open field in Nebraska,” he recalls, “And remarked on my utter discomfort at that flat open space without any tree cover, beating sun without shade, or dust-kicking wind over grass without the howl of our trees.”

He adds, “There are many beautiful places in the world, but there really is only one home.”